Indian MoD: No Chinese Parts in U.S.-Supplied Aircraft

Dec. 11, 2012 - 03:06PM
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NEW DELHI — Responding to an earlier U.S. investigation about the possible use of defective parts from China in military equipment, the Indian Defence Ministry has said that no Chinese suppliers were among the companies providing parts to aircraft sold by the United States to India.

Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Indian Parliament Dec. 10 in a written reply, “the Indian Air Force (IAF) has acquired a list of supplier from the U.S. government with respect to aircraft procured from the USA and none of the suppliers are found to be Chinese manufacturers.”

The Defence Ministry carried out the investigations following media reports in May that said a U.S. Senate investigation had concluded that between 2009 and 2010, 1,800 incidents were detected in which more than a million fake parts had been sourced from China. The U.S. Senate panel report states that counterfeit electronic parts from China were used in the Air Force’s C-130J cargo plane, helicopters for special operations and the Navy’s Poseidon surveillance plane.

Both the C-130J and Poseidon have been contracted by India under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program with the U.S.

“While Government is aware of certain media reports regarding possible usage of Chinese counterfeit electronic parts in military aircraft manufactured in the U.S., no P8I aircraft has so far been delivered to India. Moreover, during the last four years of operation of the U.S. defence equipment, including C-130J transport aircraft, the IAF have not encountered any faulty spare parts and equipment,” Antony told Parliament.

India has purchased six C-130J aircraft from Lockheed Martin and the aircraft have joined the Indian Air Force. In addition, India has contracted to buy 12 Poseidon P8I surveillance planes from Boeing in two separate contracts worth more than $3 billion. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft will replace the Indian Navy’s Russian-made TU-142 aircraft.

This year, the Air Force finalized procurement of Chinook Ch-47F heavy-lift helicopters and AH-64D Block-III Apache helicopters from Boeing, and final contracts are likely to be inked by the end of March.